On the Fringe

       One weekend we went to Charlottetown to see a few shows in the Island Fringe Festival: Take the Plunge. We were quite excited, or at least Al was, to be attending another Fringe Festival.  Fringe Festivals across the world generally consist of street performers such as magicians, circus type performers -- street  buskers as well as hour long shows that are performed on a stage or similar settings.

     Here is a description of the history of  Fringe:

"It all started in 1947 in Edinburgh, Scotland, as an alternative festival that played concurrently with the Edinburgh International Festival. Though not invited to participate, groups of actors, musicians, and the like performed at various venues on the fringe of the EIF. In 1948, Robert Kemp, a local journalist, gave it the name Fringe: "Round the fringe of official Festival drama, there seems to be more private enterprise than before..." (Read more about Fringe history at Wikipedia.)"

If you want to learn about What is Fringe click here

     The first one we attended was in Edinburgh, Scotland. We just happened to be walking down a street in the meddle of downtown and there were lots of performers along the street doing their acts. We watched many of them. We did see that there were plays and stage performances available for us to attend as well but we did not have the time or understanding of what it was all about.

     The second one we attended was in Perth, Australia and again we just happened to walk down the right street. We saw very few street performers, maybe one, but we did take in a good show, 6 Quick Dick Tricks: A Dirk Darrow Investigation. You can read more about this in our February 15, 2017 blog post.

Entrance to Fringe World in Perth, Australia

     So now we went to see the Fringe Festival: Take the Plunge in Charlottetown, PEI. There were no street performers which is too bad because they can get the public excited about the other performances in the festival. There were six or seven different performances playing in a variety of locations. We took in two of them. The first one was:

     Sarah Hagen is a classical pianist whose story was not the typical. In her past, she has played Carnegie Hall so her story was not about how she got to Carnegie Hall but how she got from Carnegie Hall to a fringe festival in PEI. Her humour was dry but good. The straight face you see in the above poster is the one she used throughout her performance. The lines were delivered well and it was an enjoyable 60 minutes. Sarah did play a full classical piece during the show and it was wonderful. 

     For those who live in Newmakret, Ontario, watch for her performance in September at the Riverwalk Commons stage. I would be interested in seeing how she explains how she got from a Fringe Festival to the Riverwalk Common stage in Newmarket. After the show, I was speaking with her and she is looking forward to being in Newmarket and being the performing guest of Mayor van Bynen.

     The second show we attended was called, "What's so Funny About...?"  The possibilities for this show were enormous but unfortunately it missed the mark. It was two so-called local comedians who basically interviewed a person of interest. Each show they had a different person that they were interviewing. The person in this show was a guy who makes his living writing music for TV shows, games, commercials and movies. You know, the back ground music they play to develop the atmosphere of what is going on the screen. It was very interesting to hear how this guy developed his business and reputation but there was nothing funny about it, not at all. He gave a few anecdotes but nothing that I would consider a "thigh slapper". During the hour, about a quarter of the audience walked out. Oh well, that is life.

     Even though one show was a dud, that does not mean that we would not attend another Fringe Festival. I would highly suggest that you be very selective of the shows that you see though.